Codevelopment of conceptual understanding and critical attitude: toward a systemic analysis of the survival blanket

Abstract

One key objective of physics teaching is the promotion of conceptual understanding. Additionally, the critical faculty is universally seen as a central quality to be developed in students. In recent years, however, teaching objectives have placed stronger emphasis on skills than on concepts, and there is a risk that conceptual structuring may be disregarded. The question therefore arises as to whether it is possible for students to develop a critical stance without a conceptual basis, leading in turn to the issue of possible links between the development of conceptual understanding and critical attitude. In an in-depth study to address these questions, the participants were seven prospective physics and chemistry teachers. The methodology included a ‘teaching interview’, designed to observe participants’ responses to limited explanations of a given phenomenon and their ensuing intellectual satisfaction or frustration. The explanatory task related to the physics of how a survival blanket works, requiring a full and appropriate system analysis of the blanket. The analysis identified five recurrent lines of reasoning and linked these to judgments of adequacy of explanation, based on metacognitive/affective (MCA) factors, intellectual (dis)satisfaction and critical stance. Recurrent themes and MCA factors were used to map the intellectual dynamics that emerged during the interview process. Participants’ critical attitude was observed to develop in strong interaction with their comprehension of the topic. The results suggest that most students need to reach a certain level of conceptual mastery before they can begin to question an oversimplified explanation, although one student’s replies show that a different intellectual dynamics is also possible. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of these findings for future research and for decisions concerning teaching objectives and the design of learning environments.

Activation of a critical attitude in prospective teachers: From research investigations to guidelines for teacher education

“…Similarly, any divergence between results across different topics would pose useful questions about the contextual dependence, validity, or complementarity of our results. As stated, the chosen topics were the hot air balloon [9], radiocarbon dating [10], how a survival blanket works [11], molecular interactions and osmosis [12], capillary ascension [13]. All were assumed to be at once nonobvious and partly accessible to the participants, an assumption that is compatible with our results.…”

“…All of our previous investigations used in-depth interviews with advanced students, that is, mainly prospective teachers at the end of their preservice preparation [10][11][12][13] and, in one case [9], future journalists. In each case, the participants were presented with a series of documents and, for each one, the opening questions were as follows: Do you consider this explanation appropriate and useful for yourself?…”

“…Another physics content was used to test the generalizability of the first findings. The topic was how to use a survival blanket to protect against hypothermia [11]. The participants (N ¼ 7) had never been taught this topic before.…”

“…The goal of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, we intend to synthesize those of these studies that are already published under a detailed format: The topics were the hot air balloon [9], radiocarbon dating [10], how a survival blanket works [11], molecular interactions and osmosis [12], and capillary ascension [13]. Consistently with our research goal, each of these studies includes a detailed and, to a greater or lesser extent, novel content analysis; a specific method for conducting and processing the interviews; and detailed findings concerning the interplay between conceptual and critical development in advanced students.…”

University physics students’ ideas of thermal radiation expressed in open laboratory activities using infrared cameras

“…For example, only a minority of students were able to conclude that the rate of heat loss from a black painted metal surface is higher than that from a shiny metal surface (33.7 % in pretest, and 42.8 % in posttest), with the most common justification being that the black surface absorbs and holds the heat better. Viennot and Décamp (2016) investigated the function of survival blankets, where one side is more reflective than the other, and students' understanding of how the blanket should be used. Questionnaires to PhD students and interviews with preservice physics and chemistry teachers revealed an understanding that went little further than survival blankets reflect infrared radiation from human bodies.…”